Free Republic

Just days before he leaves office, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is recommending military pay be limited, effectively decreasing troop salaries next year. Panetta will recommend to Congress that military salaries be limited to a 1% increase in 2014. The Pentagon has calculated that the Labor Department's 2014 Employment Cost Index is expected to be above 1% but wants to still cut back on pay because of "budget uncertainties," a department official told CNN. In 2013, a 1.7% increase was approved, based on the index, which has been the basis for military pay for the last several years. Three Pentagon officials...

A blast went off in southern Lebanon, near the city of Tyre, late on Sunday night, Al-Arabiya reported, based on local media sources. The blast reportedly occurred after an electronic device exploded in the area. The Lebanese Future TV network said that an “Israeli aircraft might have detonated an electronic transmission device” in the southern area of al-Fawwar. “Hizbullah has cordoned off the area,” Future TV added. The official Lebanese NNA news agency claimed that “Israeli aircraft did not leave the Lebanese airspace over the South all through the day.” Israel’s Channel 2 News, reporting on the explosion, cited a...